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Location

Description

IN ANNA'S GARDEN: Australian practitioners celebrating World Cyanotype Day 2018

2-4pm Saturday 15 September 2018

in THE ATRIUM: Community Exhibition Space at Monash Gallery of Art.

This exhibition has been developed by artists Doug Spowart + Vicky Cooper with support from MGA.

As part of the launch visitors will be able to contribute to a collective installation of cyanotypes. Please bring along a small object to use in the creation of your cyanotype*.

This exhibition aims to provide a glimpse into the rich community in Australia that exists around the cyanotype process. In Anna’s Garden provides an opportunity for cyanotypists to come together and share their work, and to educate the broader community about this historical process that has captured the blue hearts of contemporary artists.

The exhibition will be on display from 11 September - 21 October 2018

About the cyanotype process & World Cyanotype Day

Invented by British polymath Sir John Herschel in 1842, the cyanotype process contributed to two major moments in photography, the publication of the first photographically illustrated book (in essence, the first photobook) Anna Atkins's British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions (1843-1853) and also its commercial application as a quick and simple copying process, the blueprint, which was in common useage for much of the 20th century. Since the 1960s artists around the world have been exploring the cyanotype as part of renewed interest in alternative photographic processes.

World Cyanotype Day has been acknowledged since 2015 as an annual celebration of the cyanotype process. The 2018 event falls on 29 September and sees "photographers and artists worldwide gathering in backyards, parking lots, galleries and parks to connect, create and celebrate this antiquarian photographic process."

Cyanotype Masterclass

In addition to the exhibition, MGA will also host a Masterclass workshop with Doug Spowart + Vicky Cooper.

Join Doug Spowart and Victoria Cooper - artists, teachers, researchers and all around champions of the photobook and the photographic arts in Australia - for a unique masterclass that will extend your use of the cyanotype process to encompass narratives and storytelling.

In this masterclass Spowart + Cooper will provide an introduction to their materials, tools and practices they use for their unique cyanotype work. Participants will create cyanotype narratives in the form of simple handmade books including the 8-page fold and concertina book formats. Participants will also experiment with sample images using rice paper and some textile materials to gain an understanding of alternate materials.